If you give an engineer a garden...

It will probably look something like this!



Well, perhaps not always. But if that engineer happens to be my husband, then that's what you get. Before Greg and I take all of the credit for this masterpiece, I must direct you to Mel Bartholomew's books on square foot gardening. Mel is a civil engineer who developed this efficient method of gardening in grids rather than rows. You are supposedly able to grow lots of food while conserving space, water, and labor. We'll have to see how things turn out, but so far it sure looks pretty.

The basic idea is that you build 4-foot by 4-foot raised beds (we have 6 of them) and then divide each bed into 16 square feet. Then you plant an appropriate number of plants in each square foot, depending on the spacing needs of each plant. In this photo you can see some broccoli with one plant in each square, some green beans with 4 plants in each square, and some carrots with 16 plants in each square.

Want more details? Go here.

We've harvested some spinach and radishes so far. The rest of our plants seem to be making progress as well. I'll let you know how it goes!

Sacrifices

Hello friends! I'm back. First I must confess. I actually thought I was exaggerating a bit when I said I may not be posting again until May. Well, it's late May already and I have no idea where the time has gone.

Last year I made the decision to pursue a Master's degree while staying on at my full-time job. A Master's degree has been an inevitable step in my career path for a while, and I finally decided to get it over with. All of my colleagues have one, and I assured my boss that it was part of my plan when I hired on 3 years ago.

So I took one class last fall, and started my way down the road toward a Master's of Engineering in Geotechnics. I'll admit that I've been trudging down that road and not exactly enjoying the journey. Sure, I've celebrated some accomplishments, and learned some new (questionably useful) things in my chosen field. When it's done I know that I'll have an even bigger sense of accomplishment. And I'll have earned a great deal of respect from the people I work with. Those things make me feel like a bit of sacrifice now will pay off later. Someday I'll look back and laugh at how reluctant I was to do something good for myself.

I spent the past semester devoting a ton of time to making it through two classes toward my Master's degree. It was a struggle, but now I'm finished for the summer. I wound up with good grades in both classes. By burdening myself with two classes at once, I shaved a full six months off of my expected graduation date. All in all, I think it was worth it.

In fact, I'm currently signed up to take two classes again in the fall, even though I've said that I would never do it again. I'll probably complain about the workload, again. My husband will remind me that it was my choice to do this, again. I probably won't have much time for blogging, again. But when December rolls around, I'll probably feel like it was all worth it, again. Because at that point I'll be 15 credits into my Master's program. Halfway there! And the road will be downhill the rest of the way.

Hanging in there...

As my lack of blog-posting suggests, I have been swamped lately. Even though work has been pretty slow, I've been putting in a lot of hours in an attempt to make us not-so-slow. Plus I'm taking 6 credits of online classes this semester. Perhaps I'll get a chance to post again in May...

Eureka!

I have found it! My sweater pattern! I’ve been on the hunt for the last several months to find a sweater pattern to make for myself. I had some pretty specific ideas for what I wanted, so the search took me quite a while. I knew I wanted some cables, but not allover cables. I knew I wanted it to be somewhat close fitting. I was also hoping for some kind of unique construction.

And here it is!

Rib and Cable Cardigan from Vogue Knitting Fall 2009

And with the help of some Christmas cash, I picked up the yarn yesterday and cast on. I debated on the color for quite a while. In fact, I even bought two different colors and brought them both home with me. The contenders were either a creamy, off-white neutral color that I could pair with a brighter tank top or a brilliant, rich teal that I would wear with a lighter tank underneath.

After a little bit of waffling, I decided to “live a little” and cast on with the teal. It’s going great so far!

And I haven’t touched my sock darning project.

Sock Emergency

Sitting at work today I randomly took a moment to admire my handknit socks. I like to wear handknit socks on Mondays, because everyone needs a little reason to smile on a Monday. Well, as I took a look at my sock, I noticed a reason to quit smiling. There was a hole in the heel of my sock!

The first thing I did was check the other sock. It was wearing thin too! Not a hole yet, but it was headed in that direction.

So I removed the socks to prevent the holes from getting any worse, and started looking up tips for darning socks. I learned that there is definitely hope. First of all, the yarn was a wool and nylon blend, so even in the area where the wool has totally worn away, there is still a tiny nylon thread holding together the framework of the sock. My first plan of attack is to duplicate stitch across that hole, following the nylon thread. Fortunately, I have plenty of leftover yarn. Let’s hope that I can make that work, and I won’t have to resort to more drastic measures.

I’m currently speculating that the combination of the pattern and my shoes are to blame. The socks are only 5 months old, so I wasn’t expecting to repair them so soon. The pattern is Eunice from Sock Innovation. One unique aspect of this pattern is that the cabled design is carried down onto the heel flap of the sock. This sure looks pretty, but it does replace the notoriously sturdy slip-stitch heel flap. The hole is also placed right at the point where the top rim of my ballet flats hits my socks, so that is an area prone to abuse.

I probably won’t get the chance to repair these until after Christmas. I’ll have to post an update later.

Hooray for Progress

This might be my most productive Finish-a thon ever! And I'm not quite ready to give up yet.

I finished my sister's birthday present. They were a pair of really cute socks using self-striping JoAnn Sensations Bamboo & Ewe yarn. I initially bought this yarn because it was on-sale, I liked the colors, and it was machine washable. I try not to gift items that have to be handwashed (cuz I know my family wouldn't appreciate that). Well, as I worked on the socks, I realized that it feels really nice too. So I promptly went out to buy enough of the yarn for 4 more pairs of socks. I gave her the socks over Thanksgiving break, which is a little early for her birthday (Dec 4th), but we were both home and her feet were cold. :)

I also finished my Mom's Christmas present. I started this project several months ago when I made these grand plans to knit a bunch of Christmas gifts. It's nice to know that it's finished now.

And yesterday, I finished my Glynis socks! I was stuck at home surrounded by 4-foot snowdrifts as far as the eye could see. So I had plenty of time to curl up on the couch and knit. It's a big relief to have these done. This may have been my most frustrating project ever. I didn't really care for the effort required to make the lace pattern. But the finished socks were WONDERFUL! I made up my mind that I was just going to tough it out, and now that they're done, I'm glad I did.

Time for a Finish-a-thon

As I may have mentioned a few times, I knit a lot of things at once. Well... what actually happens is that I'm easily distracted. I get the urge to start something new, and then I toss aside current projects and conveniently forget about them. When I actually look at all of my unfinished knitting, it's a little overwhelming. I liked all of these things well enough to start them, and I'd like to have them all finished, but the thought of actually doing the work to finish them is scary.

But as I said, I want them to be finished, so I'm going to try to make some progress. Here are some of my more pressing projects.

1 - My sister's birthday present (more details after I actually gift it)
2 - My mom's Christmas present (again, details later)
3 - Glynis socks (I have one finished, just need to make the second)

And here are some of them that I'd like to finish, but I'm in less of a hurry.

4 - Random Lavender Baby Blanket - I started this one because the pattern is really pretty, but I don't actually have a specific baby in mind to receive it.
5 - Rugged Vest - I'm kinda sad about this one. It's coming out too small for Greg, and I really need to just rip the whole thing out and start over.
6 - Ripple Sweater Vest - This is a crochet project that fell victim to my new knitting obsession. But it's still a really cute vest.
7 - Flirty Skirt - Another fit issue. This was coming out too small, so I ripped it out and restarted it a while ago. It's too "spring-y" to wear anytime soon, but I'd like to finish it before next summer.

So, now for the finish-a-thon rules:
I can work on any of the above listed projects.
I cannot start new projects. (Lone exception: If I have an uncontrollable urge to start something new, I'll make an ornament from the Knit Picks Kit.)

I shall continue with this effort until I get totally sick of it. I can't promise that I'll finish them all, but any progress is a good thing.